Online Health Insurance Marketplace to Offer 28 Plans

Rhode Island’s online marketplace for health insurance is taking shape in preparation for October 1st. That's the date the exchange is scheduled to be up and running with a variety of new health plans to choose from.

The health benefits exchange is a requirement of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. It’s where individual Rhode Islanders who don’t have health insurance and employees of some small businesses can go to pick a health plan and find out if they qualify for government assistance to pay for it. Creators of Rhode Island’s exchange announced that there will be 28 different plans to choose from in October. Sixteen of those will be geared towards small businesses, and 12 will be available to the individual market. Insurers are still waiting for approval from the state health insurance commissioner on how much they can charge for each plan. Those details are expected by July 1st.

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Rhode Island health insurers have filed their requests for increases in premium rates next year. Some small businesses and individuals could see some significant hikes.

Small businesses could see their plan rates drop as much as 20 percent or spike as much as 40 percent. But the average Blue Cross increase is expected to be about 15 percent. Tufts asked for about 13 percent.

A new report from consumer health care advocacy group Families USA crunched the numbers, state by state. They found that almost 83,000 Rhode Islanders will be eligible for something called the "premium tax credit" in 2014. Families USA, by the way, calls itself nonpartisan, although some say the organization is biased because of its clear support for the Affordable Care Act.

Perhaps you’ve been wondering where things stand with Rhode Island’s efforts to build its own online health insurance marketplace?

Wonder no more! I joined our All Things Considered host Dave Fallon in the studio yesterday to give an update on the exchange. That’s because I got the chance to catch up with Christy Ferguson, who heads the group that’s planning and developing the exchange, and wanted to share what I learned.